Thousands of environmental non-government organizations (NGOs) perform invaluable tasks in China, and with signs that more are expected to emerge annually, things are looking up for China's degraded environment. But a recent report has indicated that the road ahead for China's environmental NGOs is a rocky one.

The All-China Environmental Federation (ACEF) has released a report that indicates environmental NGOs are facing some major obstacles.

Low registration rates, fund shortages, low membership, difficulties in promotion and little participation in monitoring and policy making are key challenges environmental NGOs must address in order to function at their full potential.

China's NGOs are a relatively new force, appearing in the 1990s after the government awarded them legal status, so it should be expected that they would encounter some teething problems along the way.

There are concrete reasons why NGOs are facing challenges, but more importantly there are solutions to some of these problems that I will endeavor to outline.

For example, the reason why the registration rate is so low, the ACEF report says only 23.3 per cent of the surveyed organizations were registered with Civil Affairs authorities, is because the registration process is complex and therefore registration is difficult to attain.

Currently a government sponsor must be found before an organization can register with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which can be a hard task for organizations without government links. After a sponsor is found, a registration package must be submitted for approval and this can take a long time to be processed with no guarantee of success.

Environmental groups starting out are often unable to meet the registration payment and the 50 members required for registration often falls short, as many of the groups lack the resources needed for self-promotion to attract members. These factors lead to organizations not registering, or NGOs registering as for-profit business firms, despite them having to pay tax.

A review of the current registration system should be undertaken, as its rules are prohibitive to organizations that could be having a positive impact on China's environment. If a review is not forthcoming the environmental protection sector is unlikely to grow, and in this case everybody will be detrimentally affected as only a limited number of pressing environmental issues will receive the attention they deserve.

The Internet is currently an under utilized tool in terms of Chinese environmental NGO promotion. NGOs should use the Internet more to promote their projects and boost their profiles, as its influence is far-reaching and the exposure NGOs could gain both in China and abroad could help attract more members and much needed funding.

Another potential funding source that remains relatively untapped by China's environmental NGOs are NGO-business partnerships, and in particular cooperation with Chinese businesses.

Many Chinese NGOs are still largely dependent on government and international funding without realizing the potential that NGO-business partnerships offer.

NGO-business cooperation is mutually beneficial, providing NGOs with the funding they seek, while boosting businesses' profiles as they are seen as having a good sense of corporate responsibility.

Chinese environmental NGOs also help businesses to improve their work practices to adhere to environmental guidelines, as well as helping them to implement cutting-edge environmental practices, which often leads to a boost in their production capabilities.

Currently, very few of China's environmental NGOs provide policy recommendations to the government, preferring to merely voice their concerns over a particular issue rather than getting into the nitty gritty of researching solutions. The view of many of China's environmental NGO leaders is a practical one and will provide the key to the longevity of NGOs; they believe NGOs must become more of a credible voice, through greater research, in order to influence policy.

Although environmental NGOs still have a long way to go in China they have been instrumental in areas such as energy conservation, dam resettlement, tree planting, public health awareness and biodiversity protection.

With the ACEF report predicting China's number of environmental NGOs and the staff working for them will grow annually by 10 to 15 per cent, the time is ripe for NGOs to forge new frontiers and break away from old mindsets through enhanced collaboration with Chinese businesses, a greater emphasis on research leading to policy recommendations, and the wider use of the Internet as a promotional tool and to attract funding.

All of these factors, as well as a review by the government on environmental NGO's registration process will put China's environmental movement in good stead to be able to deal with the national and global environmental challenges of tomorrow.

(China Daily July 4, 2006)